TV broadcast interrupted, what happened at the Thermal Grand Prix?

Álex Palou (Chip Ganassi Racing) won at the Thermal Club circuit in California this Sunday, but for a while, we wondered if we would ever see him cross the finish line! Around the 31st of the 65-lap race, television screens around the world froze as Will Power (Team Penske) left the pit lane. International viewers then saw a bit of snow invading their screens (in the desert, what a shame!) and then, helicopter shots of the Coachella Valley, where this second round of the season was taking place. Behind the scenes, the official broadcaster, FOX, had its worst nightmare unfolding.

The officials of theIndyCar explained to Racer.com that due to the high temperatures (up to 35°C in the air), a circuit breaker simply failed in the TV compound, where all the images are produced during the race weekend. Only the helicopter, which does not transmit the images in the same way, could still broadcast, after a certain time, however, since the production had first transmitted recorded images. In the United States, an initial advertising tunnel was sufficiently routine that the incident was not immediately noticed. It was only after the channel decided to switch to broadcasting the race of NASCAR which was taking place at the same time at the Homestead-Miami Speedway that viewers understood that IndyCar would not return to the screens immediately.

At the circuit, the journalists present were also in a state of confusion, as they no longer had any images or telemetry data. By the time all the emergency systems were set up, no one could really know what was happening on the track, apart from race control, the teams, and the drivers. After a quarter of an hour, things returned to normal, and the final laps were broadcast without any problems.

It almost inspires a philosophical question: If 27 drivers are driving around a circuit in front of a reduced crowd and with no television broadcast, is a car race taking place? You have four hours...

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